As it turns out, before Stargazer can play Musical Chairs, her skipper must play Hunt the Thimble. The autopliot refusing to stir, upon its zero six hundred alarm call. A second premature ram failure strains credulity. The culprit, for this uncharacteristic unreliabilty, must be lurking elsewhere in the system.
My suspicion falls upon the deck plug. Which transmits power and data to the ram. Oxidation is again visible on, the recently cleaned, bottom left female connector. I remove the whole fitting, to inspect the integrity of the cable connections, hidden beneath the base.
Although I lift it clear carefully, both wires detatch, as I raise it. Although their grub screws are fully home. Most likely because the tails were short. If the connections had been only a push fit, for fifteen years, problems would be likely to have surfaced earlier. There are no signs of either water ingress or oxidation, compromising the cable connections.
I replace the deck plug. With a gleaming new socket, supplied with the replacement ram. Both rams, old and new, power up, as soon as I plug them in. Perhaps that corroded connector explains the symptoms? Particularly that, back in Brest, I tested the old ram, without success, immediately prior to plugging in the newly delivered ram. Which worked. And stayed working, the next day. Possibly, the action of unplugging and plugging cleaned up the contact surfaces, sufficiently for voltage to flow. Sometimes. Time will tell. Once more, fingers are crossed aboard Stargazer.
We shall put matters to the test, on the evening tide. Whilst the west wind still blows in our favour.
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